This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 224 - 188. Seto Sosuke (8000-word goal achieved)_2

Chapter 224: Chapter 188. Seto Sosuke (8000-word goal achieved)_2

Beichuan Si’s voice dropped several degrees, restoring some clarity to Seto Cheng’s somewhat disordered state of mind.

He chuckled twice and said, "Indeed, I caught those kids at Yuchuan Elementary School. Those two little beasts that liked to spout nonsense... I dislocated their jaws. The girl who prided herself on her bright eyes, I shattered her kneecaps and gouged out her eyes. And Hazawa, the one I hate the most... I tortured him for a long time, and peeled his flesh off."

This gruesome method of execution made Qiushan Caiyin step back two paces.

"Why do you have to be afraid?" Seto Cheng looked at Qiushan Caiyin and roared, "I am the victim! You scum! You lowlifes!"

Beichuan Si said nothing.

The isolation by the whole town, the ignorance of the facts, all this had long driven Seto Cheng insane.

No... it was more like he was on the verge of insanity.

But no matter how pitiable Seto Cheng’s experiences were, they were no reason for him to attack others. Qiushan Caiyin, at least, was innocent.

After he vented, Beichuan Si finally spoke, "It was all done by you, right?"

"If that’s how you want to interpret it," Seto Cheng replied, enduring the pain in his body.

"That’s how I understand it?" Beichuan Si repeated the phrase, and while doing so, he glanced meaningfully at Seto Cheng and said, "Why do you have to lie to me?"

"Me, lie to you?" Seto Cheng’s expression remained unchanged, and he looked at Beichuan Si with a hint of disbelief, "I have laid it all out and you still say I am lying to you?"

"Then let me rephrase it a bit more precisely: You are not lying to me, instead, you deliberately omitted something."

Beichuan Si raised a finger and continued, "I have a more reasonable explanation for your words."

"I think Mr. Beichuan, you really have gone mad," Seto Cheng said, forcing the words out of his throat.

But Beichuan Si didn’t care about his remark, his tone remained steady, barely fluctuating as he voiced his speculation.

It wasn’t much different from what had been discussed with Seto Cheng earlier: Seto Cangjie was bullied and then drowned to death; he was isolated in the town, unable to find help, only harboring resentment.

But the truth about Seto Cangjie, who had drowned to death—

"He simply continued to exist in a different form, which we shall temporarily refer to as a vengeful spirit."

Seto Cheng’s complexion drastically changed upon hearing this.

On the other side, Qiushan Caiyin was utterly confused.

Beichuan Si, seeing the reaction of the two, shook his head internally.

He had to admit, Seto Cheng’s performance was far too amateurish; without the interference of powers beyond the natural, he could not have committed such a perfect crime.

Someone who was already dead, continuing to exist in this world in another form?

This statement was eerily bizarre.

"And then one day, the vengeful spirit of Seto Cangjie found you. Perhaps because he had just become a wandering spirit, he still barely retained memories of you and had not yet fully transformed into a vengeful spirit— but even so, he still demanded that you avenge him, prompting you to kill Hazawa Tuoye, Sato Hidehiko, Iida Yuji, and Huashanyuan Chun for him."

"Shut up!" Seto Cheng suddenly struggled with the intent to charge at Beichuan Si.

But even when he had both hands and feet functioning, he could not beat Beichuan Si, let alone in his current disabled state.

Beichuan Sipushed again, and he lay on the ground, powerless.

Still, Beichuan Si disregarded him and continued:

"You obtained information from the vengeful spirit of Seto Cangjie that the four kids would often go to the abandoned Yuchuan Elementary School to play hide-and-seek at night. So, on the day of the incident, you set a trap... And then, after they disappeared, Seto Cangjie used his powers to clear you of suspicion, and you followed his instructions, killing the four children one by one."

"After that, the vengeful spirits of the five children continuously lured other children of similar age into Yuchuan Elementary School, making them disappear one by one."

"Stop talking!" Seto Cheng covered his ears with one hand and bawled out in a hideous display.

Beichuan Si mercilessly pulled his hand away, "Things should have continued to deteriorate; you wanted to take revenge on the residents of Yuchuan Town. Naturally, you were pleased to see that happen."

He paused in his voice:

"But you didn’t expect the townsfolk of Yuchuan Town to actually invite a high monk to seal Yuchuan Elementary School. The vengeful spirits disappeared without a trace and couldn’t reappear."

"You were not satisfied... not satisfied at all... But since you had already taken revenge on several families, including the Hazawas, it quelled some of the viciousness in your heart, and you began to immerse yourself in writing. However, you never imagined that the curse of Yuchuan Elementary School had already entwined itself around you, due to your constant contact with the resentful spirits."

Beichuan Si narrowed his eyes.

The curse on Seto Cheng’s wrist was more intense than the curses he had absorbed from five other people.

This was obviously against all reason.

And since Seto Cheng was one of the Yuchuan people, it was possible that he often saw Sosuke’s shadow through the curse and finally learned how to break the seal from him.

This was also the method by which the protagonists in "The Lost Yuchuan" unintentionally broke the seal, as recorded in the prologue.

"The blood of the living can taint the curse... This is the method recorded in your novel ’The Lost Yuchuan.’ When I saw the bloodshed at the entrance of Yuchuan Elementary School, I had already vaguely guessed your connection to this whole affair."

Beichuan Si looked at Seto Cheng at his feet, closing his eyes, unable to accept the truth:

"I just never thought you were a good person from the start."

"You shared the gameplay of ’Four Person Hide and Seek’ in your book, allowing the ghost children to kill through the spiritual realm. This alone was a very suspicious point. But that could be explained away, as you are an author, and it’s your job to make stories more interesting and vivid."

"And then there’s today’s unprovoked following. I was already sure you were up to something."

Besides...

Beichuan Si recalled the eerie chill he felt upon entering Seto Cheng’s house, tangible... A malevolence emanating from below the mansion, a familiar smell floating in the air...

In fact, Beichuan Si had long been clear about the answer; he was simply playing along with this ’famed author’s’ dramatic performance.

His voice was cool, and it made Seto Cheng tremble:

"After all, ice not only cools... it can also hide corpses."

Giggling...

Seto Cheng’s teeth chattered violently as he looked at Beichuan Si as if seeing a ghost.

The other’s deductions might have had discrepancies, but he had got all the key points right.

"If I’m not mistaken, hidden in the cold storage beneath your Tokyo mansion are probably the bodies of those who participated in the ’Four Person Hide and Seek’ game. As an author like you, who has the potential to interact with fans, you could easily guide them to playing the game, then have them killed by the vengeful children’s spirits. Then you could use their blood to gradually soak the seal, and by now, one-third of the seal has already been tainted with human blood."

"...How do you... know?" Seto Cheng’s voice was somewhat desperate.

He really hadn’t anticipated that a casually entertained guest would possess such terrifying abilities.

Beichuan Si was even able to smell the faint scent of decay in the air, and to have guessed the source of the blood from the living...

Seto Cheng watched Beichuan Si, his limbs cold.

But Beichuan Si did not care about his gaze, simply looking behind him at Yuchuan Elementary School.

If Seto Cheng were to continue, there was a chance that all the seals would be tainted.

And by then, the vengeful spirits gestating in the spiritual realm would break through the seals and brutally kill the residents of Yuchuan Town below.

Perhaps by that time, some individuals skilled in exorcism would emerge, but it would be too late.

Beichuan Si pondered this but did not take Seto Cheng’s life.

Because back in the library, he had already called Gangye Yoshiko to search Seto Cheng’s house.

With that policewoman’s background, getting a search warrant would be no problem, and finding those bodies would probably not take long.

As he was deep in thought, a putrid stench of decay suddenly wafted from behind him.

It seemed something...

had appeared.

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